Journal ArticleDOI
Africa's Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic Divisions
William Easterly,Ross Levine +1 more
TLDR
This article showed that ethnic diversity helps explain cross-country differences in public policies and other economic indicators in Sub-Saharan Africa, and that high ethnic fragmentation explains a significant part of most of these characteristics.Abstract:
Explaining cross-country differences in growth rates requires not only an understanding of the link between growth and public policies, but also an understanding of why countries choose different public policies. This paper shows that ethnic diversity helps explain cross-country differences in public policies and other economic indicators. In the case of Sub-Saharan Africa, economic growth is associated with low schooling, political instability, underdeveloped financial systems, distorted foreign exchange markets, high government deficits, and insufficient infrastructure. Africa's high ethnic fragmentation explains a significant part of most of these characteristics.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Race and Responsiveness: An Experiment with South African Politicians
TL;DR: This paper conducted a replication field experiment with local South African politicians that tested for racial bias in responsiveness to requests about public goods provision and found that politicians are more responsive to same race constituents than to other-race constituents.
Journal ArticleDOI
Health as Human Capital and its Impact on Economic Performance
David E. Bloom,David Canning +1 more
TL;DR: There is a strong case that poorer countries should concentrate their government spending on investment that leads to economic growth; spending on current consumption may lead to welfare gains today but does nothing to cure the long-term problems of poverty.
Journal ArticleDOI
Counting the Cost of the Intifada : Consumption, Saving and Political Instability in Israel
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate some of the ways in which short-term variations in the magnitude of political instability can impact on macroeconomic performance, taking the example of Israel since 1987.
Posted Content
Volatility, Financial Development and the Natural Resource Curse
TL;DR: In this article, a cross-country evidence is presented on resource dependence and the link between volatility and growth, and the key message is that the volatility is a quintessential feature of the resource curse.
Journal ArticleDOI
African economic development in a comparative perspective
Yılmaz Akyüz,Charles Gore +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, a new policy approach, drawing on the experience of both post-colonial and adjustment periods, is needed to tackle the structural constraints which impede productivity growth in agriculture.
References
More filters
The mechanics of economic development
Abstract: This paper considers the prospects for constructing a neoclassical theory of growth and international trade that is consistent with some of the main features of economic development. Three models are considered and compared to evidence: a model emphasizing physical capital accumulation and technological change, a model emphasizing human capital accumulation through schooling, and a model emphasizing specialized human capital accumulation through learning-by-doing.
Journal ArticleDOI
On the mechanics of economic development
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the prospects for constructing a neoclassical theory of growth and international trade that is consistent with some of the main features of economic development, and compare three models and compared to evidence.
Posted Content
Law and Finance
Rafael La Porta,Rafael La Porta,Florencio Lopez de Silanes,Florencio Lopez de Silanes,Andrei Shleifer,Andrei Shleifer,Robert W. Vishny,Robert W. Vishny +7 more
TL;DR: This paper examined legal rules covering protection of corporate shareholders and creditors, the origin of these rules, and the quality of their enforcement in 49 countries and found that common law countries generally have the best, and French civil law countries the worst, legal protections of investors.
ReportDOI
Economic Growth in a Cross Section of Countries
TL;DR: For 98 countries in the period 1960-1985, the growth rate of real per capita GDP is positively related to initial human capital (proxied by 1960 school-enrollment rates) and negatively related to the initial (1960) level as mentioned in this paper.
Journal ArticleDOI
Finance and Growth: Schumpeter Might Be Right
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined a cross-section of about 80 countries for the period 1960-89 and found that various measures of financial development are strongly associated with both current and later rates of economic growth.